There was a hissing over the speakers. “This is a Code J for Juliet emergency in sections four and five. Repeat, a Code J for Juliet in sections four and five. Immediate action is required by all personnel. Immediate action.”
Ryan looked at J.B. “Fireblast! What’s going on here?”
“Who knows? Sounds urgent.”
The group of companions clustered together in the center of the room. Abe kept glancing toward the closed door of the bathroom.
“What do we do, Dad?” Dean touched his father’s hand for reassurance.
“Wait a little.”
“Man runs the moment he thinks he hears danger finds he’s stuck his head right into it,” said Trader.
“Code J for Juliet imperative action soonest.”
“Mebbe we should head for the mat-trans right away,” Ryan said uncertainly, thrown by the disembodied voice that implied urgency yet gave no clues to what was happening.
“Purging begins in five minutes from now. Ninety percent vacuum in ten minutes from now. Personnel evacuation soonest, repeat soonest, repeat soonest.”
“What’s a vacuum, Dad?”
Mildred snapped her fingers. “These places have overall computer control, don’t they?”
Ryan nodded.
“And they monitor everything to do with the redoubt?”
“Sure. Old predark days they’d have had human controllers to override any problems.”
“Yes, yes. But they’re programmed to act independently if necessary?”
RYAN SENT DEAN TO RUN ahead of them to press the button that would send the sec door crawling upward, while the rest of them snatched up their scant possessions.
“Door wouldn’t work right on the way in,” Trader panted.
The eleven-year-old’s voice floated back to them. “Won’t open, Dad!”
“Big fire!” Abe had just dropped his blaster, stooping to collect it from where it had rattled under one of the narrow beds. “Got it. What’d the kid say?”
He found that he was alone in the dormitory. With a hasty glance toward the ablution facility, Abe raced after the others, to find them by the locked door.
“Put a couple of rounds through the controls,” Trader suggested.
“And jam the whole thing!” J.B. pressed the button twice more.
“Allow me,” Doc said, stepping forward, blowing on the tips of his fingers like a master safe breaker.
He was interrupted by the amplified voice. “Three minutes to purging in sections four and five. Eight minutes to terminal vacuum. All personnel to leave instantly or use breathing facilities as instructed under J for Juliet.”
Doc pressed the small button once, let it go, then pressed it halfway in, finally pushing it all the way in and holding it for a few seconds. The light came on and, after a trio of heartbeats, the door began to rise.
“Well done, Doc!” Mildred exclaimed. “Probably just pure luck, though.”
“No. When I was a student at Harvard, I had a single-room apartment with a shared water closet. The flushing mechanism was, to put it mildly, very erratic. So, I simply administered a similar technique to the door and”
It was nearly eighteen inches off the floor. Ryan ducked, peered quickly into the passage beyond, rolled underneath and called to the others to follow him.
Krysty caught Mildred by the sleeve as they waited their turn. “What’s going to happen here?”
“If it’s what I think it is, honey, then you don’t want to know. Believe me, the faster we get and jump, the better.”
She bent and crawled under the door, which seemed to be moving more and more slowly.
A few seconds later they were all safely through the gap, facing the stairs and the long expanse of curved passageway.
Ryan looked around. “Jak, you’re fastest. Go straight to the outer door and throw the green lever up. Rest of us’ll follow at our best speeds. Go!”
The albino vanished, running almost silently, quickly out of their sight.
“Time’s snarling at our back,” Ryan said calmly. “Everyone go for it.”
They’d hardly started to run, Doc still at the top of the first flight of steps, when that calm, unflurried comp voice broke in on them again.
“Two minutes to purging throughout sections four and five. Seven minutes to terminal vacuum. Unless personnel are in proximity to exits, they must, repeat must, use emergency air facilities as instructed by code J for Juliet. These sections are now on full alert.”